Life cycle

Borgen, the new political drama from Denmark, shows how different life can be. Denmark appears to be a society that is more at ease with itself than our own.

For example, the Killing, also from Denmark, used Copenhagen’s city hall as a backdrop. When I visited Copenhagen with my family a few years ago we were struck by the architecture of the city hall so we decided to go inside.

To our surprise the receptionist said we could wander around. No security, no search, nothing. We went from floor to floor and could go into any of the offices – given that it was around lunch-time many of the offices were empty. The workers greeted us and our young children pleasantly and without challenge.

This is such a contrast from my own town hall in England, let alone London’s city hall – where security entails passing through body scanners.